Self-government.—A constitution for the Transvaal on representative lines was promulgated by letters patent on March 31, 1905; but there was already an agitation for the immediate grant of full self-government, and on the accession to office of the Campbell-Bannerman administration in Dec. 1905 it was decided to accede to it. New letters patent were issued (Dec. 12, 1906), and the first general election (Feb. 1907) resulted in the return of a majority belonging to Het Volk, a Boer organization formed for political purposes. Lord Selborne, who had during 1905 suc ceeded Lord Milner as high commissioner and governor of the Transvaal, entrusted Gen. Botha with the formation of a ministry.
Botha chose as colleagues Gen. J. C. Smuts and other men of progressive, in some respects democratic, views, and thus showed his determination not to be dominated by the "back veld" Boers.
He was strengthened in his attitude by the firm action of the Progressive (i.e., the ex-Uitlander) Party, which secured 21 seats (out of a total of 69) in the legislative chamber, entirely in the Rand and Pretoria districts, and was led by Sir George Farrar and Sir Percy Fitzpatrick. The Government announced that there would be no wholesale repatriation of Chinese. The men left gradually as the licences expired, and by Feb. 1910 all the Chinese coolies had returned home. At the same time successful efforts were made by the ministry to increase the supply of native labour for the mines. On the education question an agreement satisfac tory to both the British and Dutch-speaking communities was reached.
One of the first problems which confronted the Botha ministry was the attitude to be adopted towards the other British colonies in South Africa. Milner, by various measures, had endeavoured to pave the way for federation, and Chamberlain when he visited South Africa in 1903 had also put forward federation as the desired goal. On economic as well as political grounds, the leaders of both parties in the Transvaal were prepared to consider favour ably the proposals put forward by Dr. Jameson at the close of 1906 for a closer union of all the self-governing colonies, and the first direct step to that end was taken at an inter-colonial con ference held in May 1908. The history of this movement, which resulted in the establishment of the Union of South Africa on May 31, 1910, is given under SOUTH AFRICA, UNION OF. Apart from this movement the most notable events in the Transvaal at this period were the development of agriculture, the gradual revival of trade (the output of the gold mines in 1909 totalled £30,925,000, and at the end of the year 156,000 native labourers were employed), and the continued difficulty with regard to Brit ish Indians. On this last point the Botha ministry sought to enforce registration of Indians, and, for failing to register, M. V. Gandhi and other leaders were imprisoned in 1908 and large num bers of Indians were deported. However, the establishment of the Union of South Africa removed from the competence of the Transvaal provincial council all legislation specially or differen tially affecting Asiatics.
Rissik—was appointed first administrator of the Transvaal prov ince, a post he held until 1917, when A. G. Robertson succeeded, and remained administrator till 1924. Much of the energy of the provincial council was given to education, in which many bold experiments were made.
A considerable number of Boers in the western Transvaal took part in the rebellion of 1914, but the influence of Gens. Botha and Smuts kept most burghers loyal to the British connection. The disturbances on the Rand in 1913-14 and the revolt of 1922 were not on racial lines, though the majority of the white miners had by this time become Dutch-speaking. But feelings were strongly marked in the provincial council, as was shown by agitations against officials because of their nationality or their politics. Thus, after the general election in June 1924, when the Nationalist and Labour parties gained the victory, there was an agitation to remove the newly appointed administrator, J. H. Hofmeyr, be cause he belonged to the South African party, an agitation which Gen. Hertzog, the prime minister, refused to heed. In the flag controversy of 1926-27 the Dutch burghers followed Tielman Roos, then minister of justice and leader of the Transvaal Nation alists, who supported the compromise by which both the Vierkleur and the union jack formed part of the flag. Both political and economic questions had however largely ceased to be kept within provincial lines.
The respective claims of Durban and Lourenco Marques (Dela goa bay) to the trade of the Rand had been settled in 1909 by an agreement, known as the Mozambique Convention, signed by the Transvaal and Portuguese authorities. This convention also per mitted the recruitment of Portuguese natives for work in the Transvaal mines. Difficulties arose and the convention lapsed in 1923 though a modus vivendi was reached in respect of native labour. In the negotiations for a new solution the question of the control of Lourenco Marques gave much trouble. Eventually on Sept. II, 1928, a new convention was concluded at Pretoria be tween the Union Government and the Portuguese.